where orders emerge

Empty? Mindless?

Although de rigueur among
"progressives," Jim Salvucci is mistaken to describes bourgeois values
as "empty" and consumerism as "mindless" (Letters, November 17).
Bourgeois values encourage the substantive and mindful traits of hard
work, sobriety, thrift, honesty, and self-reliance – all which earn
their practitioners the ability over time to enjoy greater material
comforts and amusements.

What is truly empty is the value that
counsels A to live off of the wealth given to him by B and which B
confiscated from C. And what is truly mindless is the notion that
society progresses as greater numbers of us live as A’s or as B’s, and
all the while thinking of C’s as being nothing more than contemptible
cows to be milked for the "general good."